Rifle forestock



6. A. BRONSON RIFLE FORESTOCK Dec; 1, 1970 Filed March 29, 1968 United States Patent Office 3,543,428 Patented Dec. 1, 1970 3,543,428 RIFLE FORESTOCK George A. Bronson, West Sacramento, Calif. (P.0. Box 588, Sacramento, Calif. 95803) Filed Mar. 29, 1968, Ser. No. 717,163 Int. Cl. F41c 23/00 US. Cl. 42--71 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A rifle forestock having a lower portion with a square cross section and an upper portion with longitudinal grooves in which the fingers of the user lie while the rifle is being fired. The bottom surface of the stock is aligned with the touch-point of the trigger of the rifle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to firearms and, more particularly, to a rifle forestock that is especially adapted for a Weapon that is intended to be fired from an unraised position.

The conventional technique for firing a rifle is to raise the rifle up to the level of the users eye and align the rifle sight between the target and the sighting eye. Accomplished marksmen are able to achieve remarkable accuracy by employing this technique. In warfare, law enforcement, and game hunting, there are many situations, however, that require the immediate firing of the rifle without any hesitation after the user is appraised of the situation. The time required to raise the rifle and sight on the target may jeopardize the safety of the rifle user.

Various attempts have been made to develop techniques for firing a rifle that reduce the time required to get off a shot. One such technique which is described in Time magazine, July 14, 1967, on page 16, is called Quick Kill. The rifle is raised to the shoulder and is imagined by the user to be an extension of the eye. The rifle is first aligned between the target and the eye and then fired instinctively without actually using the rifle sight. Basically, the whole rifle length serves as a sight. The article in Time magazine points out that surprising accuracy is possible by means of such instinct shooting. Although the time actually required to sight on the target is obviated in the Quick Kill technique, time is still consumed to raise the rifle to the shoulder. For this reason, some firing techniques have been developed in which the rifle is not raised to the shoulder before firing it. Generally, such techniques for firing a rifle from an unraised position are grossly inaccurate because the rifle is oriented on a different level than the eye when the rifle is fired. I have, however, recently devised a technique for firing a rifle from an unraised position with a high degree of accuracy. According to my technique, the user of the rifle imagines a triangle the sides of which are formed by a straight line from the rifle to the target, a straight line from the eye to the target, and a straight line from the rifle to the eye along the body. The user orients the rifle until he envisages that the triangle is closed, at which time he fires because the rifle should be on target. Needless to say, the eflectiveness of my firing technique requires an awareness on the part of the user of the orientation of the rifle so that he may picture the triangle with accuracy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The subject of this invention is a rifle forestock that gives a rifle user a sharp awareness of the orientation of his rifle. Consequently, this forestock is especially adapted for use with my technique for firing a rifle from an unraised position described above. The bottom surface of the forestock is aligned with the touch-point of the rifle trigger. Preferably, the rifle stock has a lower portion with a rectangular cross section and an upper portion with longitudinal grooves on both sides of the rifle barrel that extend parallel to the barrel. When the rifle is being fired, the trigger finger of one hand is located at the touch-point of the trigger, the palm of the other hand extends around the lower portion of the stock with the rectangular cross section, and the fingers of the other hand lie in the longitudinal grooves of the upper portion of the stock. Thus, the trigger finger of the one hand and the palm of the other hand lie essentially in a straight line. This gives the user a true picture of the orientation of the rifle because the straight line is parallel to the direction in which the rifle is pointed. By gripping the lower portion of the stock with the rectangular cross section and the upper portion with the longitudinal grooves, the user utilizes his neuromuscular feel to further heighten his awareness of the rifle orientation.

In the preferred mode, which incorporates a lower portion of the forestock of a square cross section substantially one and one-half inches across each side, as designed for the average American male hand, the hand is placed instinctively with three fingers (middle, ring, and little finger) and thumb in the longitudinal grooves. Using the forestock of this specification, the hand gripping the forestock will automatically, of after a few trials, correctly grip the forestock, due to the inherent design of the forestock structure. With the ends of the fingers and thumb placed instinctively in the grooves, the tactilesensory portions near the ends of the fingers and thumb automatically rest upon the two longitudinal ridges naturally formed by the junction of the lower portion surface with the grooves of the upper portion. It has been found that accuracy far in excess of that previously attained in firing a rifle from an unraised position can be achieved by utilizing the described rifle forestock, particularly in conjunction with my firing technique described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The features of a specific embodiment of the invention are illustrated in the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of a rifle incorporating the forestock which is the subject of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an original rifle forestock before it is modified to include the forestock of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the stock of FIG. 2 after it is modified to include the forestock of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1, an Ml6 rifle is shown which has been modified to incorporate the stock that. is the subject of this invention. The rifle includes a barrel 1, a forestock 2, upper handguard 5, a trigger 3, and a shoulder stock 4. FIG. 2 shows the original stock of the M-16 rifle, which comprises an upper handguard 5 and a lower handguard 6. To construct the modified rifle of FIG. 1, lower handguard 6 is removed and replaced with forestock 2, as shown in cross section with upper handguard 5 in FIG. 3. Forestock 2 is either cemented or bolted into place adjacent barrel 1 under upper handguard 5.

Forestock 2 comprises an upper portion 10 having longitudinal grooves 11 and 12 on either side of barrel 1 and a lower portion 13 having a :rectangular, preferably square cross section. Lower portion 13 has a flat bottom surface 14 that extends parallel to the length of the rifle. Grooves 11 and 12 and surface 14 extend parallel u m ome mun a was, sun-M, wa m. w w gripped by the hand for aiming and supporting said gun and located intermediate said triggering arrangement and said barrel discharge end, the improvement wherein said hand gripping portion comprises a flat bottom surface aligned with the touch point of said triggering ar- 1/ 1947 Williams 4271 8/ 1948 Bradley 4271 BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner C. T. JORDAN, Assistant Examiner 

